REJECTED BY ONLINE LAW SCHOOL?

I want to go to law school online. In Georgia, our choices are few and far between. I am 43 years old. My undergrad GPA is 3.69. My LSAT was 140... sad. I am a mother of 2 and actually finished my Bachelor's degree online and took 6 classes towards my Masters in Law and Public Policy. Both school were accredited, regular colleges. I am not even really interested in being a trial attorney anyway. I just love the law.

After all the research I did on online law schools, I decided to go with Taft. You can actually get Federal Student Aid and have your current student loans deferred while attending. That is a plus. They have also been around a long time and after talking with them, I thought they were the best choice for me.

However, I got an email from them on Friday indicating that they have had a lot of applications for the Fall semester and they requested I write an essay on which part of the First Amendment is most important in our modern society. No more than 5 pages. They say this will allow them to determine who will succeed at Taft. Do they think they are Harvard?

Now... I cannot figure out if this is their way of not admitting me or if they are on the fence and want to see if I can write. Since I have been in the legal profession 18 years and have taken 6 law classes already, I have written legal essays and briefs so I sent an essay I already wrote for another class. It was about cases being tried in the media. I received an A- on it. It's a pretty good essay. It is possible they have too many applicants for September and I assume if they did not want me, I would have already been rejected.

My second choice of schools is California School of Law but the benefit of deferring current student loans is not available.

Yeah, just send in your writing sample. My guess is due to your LSAT score they want to make sure you're somewhat intelligent so you don't fail out or are unable to pass the bar, which would reflect poorly on the school. I doubt they have an over-enrollment problem. I just don't see how an online school free from physical constraints can have over-enrollment issues unless some of the classes are actually in a classroom. Are some of the classes in a classroom?

I guess they wanted the writing sample and it must have been okay because they accepted me. I think the over enrollment issue is because now you have to log in and either attend class online or get your assignments online. I know that the JD "telecommunications" program at Taft even qualifies for federal financial aid. That is pretty shocking and impressive at the same time. No online law school has the option for federal financial aid. Just to make sure I amended my federal student aid application (I was getting aid while working on Master's) and sure enough, Taft is a listed school. You can also defer your current loans... another benefit not offered by other online law schools.

A score of 140 on the LSAT is not that bad if you study more you could probably raise it, Thomas Cooley and Texas Law Schools have p/t programs and with a LSAT score of about 146 you could probably make it, I am currently studying for the LSAT , but was looking at other options as I hate the LSAT and I suck at it, I have been a paralegal for 20 years and I want to do what I do for myself but the problem is the BAR - I do want to be a TRIAL attorney is what I love, just cant get passed the LSAT thing...

I am very concerned about your apparent plan to attend the Taft Law School. There are several reasons for my concern, including:

(1) Your initial posting says that you want to go to an online law school. Taft, however, despite its advertising indicating that it is an online school, is categorized by the California State Bar as a "correspondence" law school, which according to the State Bar means that Taft conducts its instruction "primarily by correspondence" rather than "primarily by technological means, as is the case for the schools categorized by the Bar as being "distance learning," ." As you apparently are aware, there is a big difference between the "self study" programs at correspondence schools and the pedagogy at online schools.

(2) Students at The Taft Law School have a terrible record on the California First Year Students Exam ("baby bar"), which all students at correspondence and online schools must pass before being allowed to continue in a law school program leading to taking the final bar exam and becoming licensed. For example, in October 2008, of the 35 Taft students who took the baby bar, only six (17.1%) passed. To make matters worse and for another example, the Taft students' passage rate on the final bar exam in July 2008 was barely above 25% (4 out of 15). So, you can see that your chances, at the time you enter Taft, of getting admitted to the bar are less than 10%, and that is without taking attrition into account.

The one online law school that utilizes the traditional Socratic Method in its teaching is the California School of Law. Apparently as a result of its truly interactive technology, this School has promising "baby bar" results.For the statistical details on this, as well as this school's use of the traditional Socratic Method of law school instruction, go to "Wiklipedia: Correspondence and Online Law Schools." Go also to "CaliforniaSchoolofLaw.com."